This specification relates generally to ranking search queries.
The rise of the Internet has facilitated access to a wide variety of content items, e.g., web pages, images, video content, audio content, electronic games, news articles, and other content. Content items that may be of interest to a user can be identified by a search engine in response to a search query submitted by the user. A search query can include one or more search terms or phrases. In response to receiving a search query, a search engine typically identifies content items responsive to the query, and ranks the content items based on a calculated estimation of how well the content items match the search terms in the search query. The resulting list of content items is then presented to the user.
Search engines commonly have access to query logs that record search queries submitted by many users over time. The total number of times that each search query has been submitted, sometimes referred to as the query's search volume, during a time period can be determined based on the data stored in the query logs. Search queries can be ranked according to their respective search volumes over a period of time. Search queries with the highest search volumes can be presented as the top volume queries for that period of time. Search queries can also be ranked according to the increase in their respective search volumes over a period of time. Search queries with the fastest increase in search volumes can be presented as the top rising queries for that period of time. Top volume queries and top rising queries are often used as indicators of increasing popularity of a topic in a given time period.